Bengal EC to notify polls today

The West Bengal State Election Commission will issue the notification for the three-tier panchayat election in the state on Monday, state election commissioner Mira Pandey said on Sunday.

The notification will set in motion the poll process from May 29. Once SEC issues the notification, district magistrates will follow suit in their regions on the basis of the schedule for the poll to be held on July 2, 6 and 9, Pandey said.

Earlier during the day, SEC officials held a meeting to review the final arrangements for the poll. The poll panel had held a series of meetings in this regard with law-enforcing authorities and political parties in the past few days. Last week, Pandey had discussed the requirement of security forces and arrangement for the polls as per its discussion with governor M K Narayanan.

"However, we are yet to receive any reply regarding the deployment pattern of the security forces or security arrangements during the nomination process," she said.

Meanwhile, the state government has ordered an inquiry into the receipt of three threatening letters by Pandey. Though SEC sources maintained that the letters were threatening in nature "presumably for her stand on holding panchayat elections", Pandey chose not to comment.